Ocean View
by mardel
Summary: Claire has a very bad day and then something nice happens...


And now for something completely different...

(The part of Rick will be played by Jason Makiaris)

Ocean View

rated not for under 13

Claire walked out to her SUV after another long day at work. Darien and

Bobby along with Alex were off on a mission. There last report from

the field had been positive. So she thought it was safe for her to head on

home and sleep in her own bed. She was always available if something

should happen that required her attention.

She unlocked her the door and climbed inside. Placing her brief case beside

her on the floor of the passenger seat and pulling on the safety harness.

She was driving up Ventura Blvd in the after rush hour traffic. The sun was

low on the horizon but was still a good hour from setting. She had her window

rolled down so that she could breath in some fresh air for a change.

She turned off the main road onto a side road that climbed up above the

center of town to take the scenic route home. It wasn't busy usually because

it was the long way to get just about anywhere, unless you lived off the road.

Traffic was moving along at a steady pace, she noticed two cars dodging

in and out of lanes. Almost as if they were chasing each other. Then the

next thing she knew she was broadsided by a large pickup truck. Claire

hadn't even seen what hit her. Her SUV was pushed sideways into the gravel

on the roadside. Horns blared, she heard someone scream. Her head

impacted something hard. She felt blood trickling down the side of her head.

The entire left side of her body was impacted when the truck struck her car.

Claire had a glimps of what was happening, just before her car tipped over

the side of the embankment, rolled over several times and landed on its roof.

Two cars and the truck were all involved in the crash and they were still

assembled on the road in a tangled heap. The brush beside the road was

over grown in the lush California environment, when the ambulance and

police arrived no one knew that a forth car had been involved. They didn't

look for her.

Claire was unconscious for several hours. It was past night fall when she

woke up with a pounding head ache. Still strapped into her seat, her left side

bruised, her left hip aching. She attempted to release herself from her shoulder

harness, but the buckle wouldn't budge. She saw her bag no where that she

could reach. Her cell phone was in the bag. She tried yelling for help believing

it had only been a short time since the crash. But that made her head hurt

worse than ever. She must have passed out again the next time she woke up

she was still trapped and it was growing chilly. The sounds of the road noise

were down to almost nothing.

Claire against tried to free herself from the straps. But she wasn't having any

success. Then she heard a rustling noise outside the car.

"Help please, I'm trapped." She called out. "Help me!"

Then she stopped to listen, she heard more rustling, "Help, please, can you

help me?" She called out again.

There was still more rustling, then she saw outside the mashed in side of her

car a small black and white dog wagging it's tail at her and sniffing at her threw the window.

"Oh, Hello." Claire felt like laughing, but she hurt to much. "Where's your owner?

Can you go get help, pretend you're Lassie and go get help." She told the little

dog, not hoping for a second that it understood her. The little dog wagged at her

leaned in the window and gave the side of her face a couple of licks.

"Oh, you know I'm in trouble don't you. Go home and get help little one."

Claire said in an urgent voice.

The dog cocked it's head to the side as if really listening to her and then turned

and trotted off. He ran back up to the road and jumped on Rick's leg.

"There you are, where did you get off to?" Rick patted Mikey's head for a second. The dog jumped down, and ran towards the undergrowth again.

"Hey, no we need to go this way." Rick called after him. Mikey was a smart

dog and he usually listened well on their walks.

Mikey stopped looked back at his owner then ducked into the bushes.

"Hey, come on, we don't have time for this game." Rick walked a few feet

towards where the dog had gone.

Mikey stopped woofed one then went even further into the woods beside

the road. Rick followed him, "Hey, come back here."

Mikey trotted faster once he had Rick following him. He stayed just far enough

ahead so that he couldn't get grabbed and put back on his leash.

"Oh, you're back, did you bring help?" Claire asked, she was feeling very light

headed after backing out and being upside down for hours.

"Mikey were are you?" Rick called out he was still twenty feet away and the

car wasn't visible in the darkness.

"Help, please!" Clarie called out.

"Hello? Where are you?" Rick called back. "What's wrong?"

"I"m stuck, my car went off the road." Claire called back.

"Hang on I'm coming." Rick followed her voice and was soon standing beside

the smashed car. He knelt down and looked in her window. A very pretty blonde

lady looked back at him. She was still strapped into her seat. And she was bleeding.

"Oh, wow do you want me to go get an ambulance? Are you hurt bad?" Rick asked.

He didn't know much about broken bones and stuff, he didn't want to hurt her

worse by moving her.

"Thank you for coming. I don't think anything is broken, I'm not having trouble

breathing, I hurt but I think it's busing mostly. If you could help me get out of

this harness." She suggested.

"Are you sure, I don't want to make things worse." He reached in and tried to

release her buckle. It didn't budge for him either. So he pulled out a pocket

knife and sliced threw the harness. Claire slide down on to her shoulders

in an awkward position. Rick grabbed her under the arms and pulled her out

into the ground beside her car.

"Do you have a cell phone?" She asked a minute later, once the pain of

being moved subsided a little.

"No, I didn't bring it." He shook his head.

"I have mine, it's in a black brief case, in there." She nodded towards the car.

"Mikey go get the bag." Rick pointed towards her car. He saw a bottle of water

laying in the ceiling and handed it to her.

Mikey moved past the two people and into the wrecked car, he searched for

the bag, and found it wedged between the door and the passenger seat. He

tugged on it several times then sat and woofed.

"Good dog, can't you bring it here?" Rick asked looking over at his dog.

Mikey turned to look at him and kept sitting.

Rick crawled back inside the wreck and pulled out the bag after tugging on it

several times. He found her cell phone but it was dead.

"Great it's broken, or dead. I'll go up to the road and get some help."

Rick told Claire.

"Thank you," She sighed. She was feeling cold and didn't think she could

walk if she tried.

"Mikey stay here with the lady." He ordered. Mikey moved in beside Claire

and lay next to her.

Rick hurried back up to the road and then ran up the street to the nearest

house. There was no one home. So he continued on up the hill, he knew there

was a Quick Mart at the top of the hill. It took him twelve minutes to get there.

He ran to the payphone, grabbed it off the hook and dialed 911. "I need

an ambulance there was a crash on Ocean View Drive, A lady is hurt."

"I'll send EMS right away sir." She women on the other end of the line said.

"What location on Ocean View?" She asked.

"It's half way up the hill, between La Cecnica and the parkway." He told her

" Hurry please."

Rick rushed down the hill, and waited for the ambulance to arrive. He waved

them over to the side of the road.

"She's down there, her car flipped over." He pointed as they pulled up on the

side of the road.

"I'll show you," He waved to them. The two Emergency firemen grabbed up

their work gear and followed him down the side of the hill. They all found

Claire with Mikey. He was laying close to her side, her hand resting on his

fur.

"Mikey, good dog, come here." Rick praised his dog, and then moved out

of the way.

The two firefighter/EMT's went to work on her, the though she had a

concussion at the least. They strapped her into a carry litter and carried

her up the hill to load her into the ambulance.

A police officer arrived and took down Rick's name. For his report,

"Man it's a good thing you and your dog came along, she might have died

down here." The officer told him.

Claire woke up in a hospital bed, with Eberts standing nearby.

"What happened?" She asked.

"You were in an automobile accident, don't you remember?" Eberts stood at

the foot of her bed and looked concerned.

"Oh, yes my car went down the embankment, what day is this?"

"Thursday, I've seen to Pavlov. How are you feeling?" Albert asked.

"My head hurts, my side hurts. Owe and my leg hurts." She moved to sit up

a little, then remembered the bed would move for her. She pushed the button

on the remote control and it hummed her into a sitting position.

"Your physician doesn't believe you have any serious injuries, but you were

a getting close to being hypothermic when they brought you in, and you do have

a concession." Eberts told her.

"I hope they'll let me out of here soon." Claire didn't like hospitals much it's

one of the reasons's she'd gone into research.

"The Official was here this morning, he said you should take several days off

and rest." Albert informed her.

"Yes, it's looks like I have very little choice about that." She reached for the

glass of water on her side table.

"Thank you for being here Albert, I'm sure you have to go back to the office

soon. Are Darien and Bobby still on assignment?" She asked curious.

"Yes, I did send them a message about your accident, but I only said that you'd

been in a fender bender. I didn't want to alarm them." Albert added.

"Oh, I see." She'd kind of hopped they would come and see her during her

convalescence.

"I'll stop by later and see if you can be discharged." He said as he left.

"Thank you." Claire sighed.

It was past two that afternoon when she was trying to find a comfortable

position, when there was a soft knock at her door.

"Hello, may I come in?" A male voice asked.

"Yes, please do."

"You might not remember me." He started to say, but she stopped him

"I know you, you helped me the other night. Thank you." She smiled at Rick.

"Rick Papplos and Mikey, but they don't have therapy dogs in this hospital

so he had to stay home." Rick introduced himself.

"Rick, and Mikey I guess I owe him a nice big dog bone."Claire responded.

"He'd be happy with a pat on the head." Rick told her. " I just wanted to

stop and see how you were doing. The officer at the accident sight told

me your name. " He placed the small bundle of flowers he'd brought on the

table across from her bed.

"Thank you Rick, thank you for everything." Claire smiled again.

"I'm glad Mikey found you, I had no idea there was a car off the side of

the road." He admitted.

"I don't even know what happened, a truck I think hit me, then I woke up

upside down." She shrugged.

"Well you look better already, nothing serious injured, that's good."

He noticed she wasn't in a cast.

"I was very lucky, aside from a knock on the head and a lot or bruising."

Claire felt silly, talking to him about her health.

"Okay, well I'm glad you're doing good." Rick said as he prepared to leave.

"It was nice of you to stop by to see me. Thank you again for your help."

Claire told him.

"You're welcome." He smiled and kind of waved as he left.

Man you are such a knucklehead. Rick told himself out in the hallway.

She's probably thinks you're some dumb guy that wanted something from

her. He berated himself as he walked towards the elevators.

It was just that ever since he'd helped her the night before he kept thinking

about her. It was really weird he'd never had a reaction to a lady he'd met

for only what amounted to a few minutes. But she was a lady in distress,

or she had been, and she did have that very cute accent.

Rick drove back to his place and sat down at his computer. He had work to

do and he'd already used up valuable time with his trip to the hospital.

But at least he'd be able to do some work now that he'd assured himself

that she was fine. Or at least going to be fine soon.


End file.
